At the White House, Secret Service officers shot and wounded Robert W. Pickett, 47, who had fired a handgun outside the south fence. President Bush, who was inside at the time, was never in danger. The incident triggered a temporary security clampdown – keeping visitors from entering or leaving the White House and snarling traffic for blocks.

Pickett was a tax accountant who lived alone in Evansville, Ind., with no known police record.

1998:

Shooter Russell E. Weston, 42, of Helena, Mont. burst through a security checkpoint in the U.S. Capitol and killed two Capitol Police officers in a terrifying exchange of fire that sent panicked bystanders diving for cover. One tourist, Angela Dickerson, 24, also was hit. The wounded gunman was captured in the office complex of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas. The shootings were the first in the Capitol in 44 years, and the worst since Congress convened in the building in 1800. Weston had come to the attention of the U.S. Secret Service in 1996 for “threatening

statements” he made about President Clinton. He was reportedly angry with the government and “had complained that President Clinton had been following him.” The two slain officers were identified as Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, both 18-year veterans. They were believed to be the first Capitol Police officers killed while on duty there.

1994:

In October, a young Widefield, Colo., hotel worker, Francisco Duran, pulled out a semiautomatic rifle from beneath his

trench coat and fired several shots at the front of the White House from the sidewalk along Pennsylvania Avenue. Testimony at

his trial showed he was motivated by intense hatred of the federal government and had notes in his possession reading, “Kill the Prez.” A jury rejected defense claims that he was a paranoid schizophrenic. Duran was sentenced to 40 years in prison for attempted assassination of the president – although no one was injured and President Clinton was never in danger.

1987:

R. Budd Dwyer, 47, the Pennsylvania State Treasurer, publicly committed suicide at a press conference after proclaiming he had been wrongly convicted of bribery. He had been convicted of bribery in connection with a $4.6 million contract awarded without bidding to a small computer concern. He faced up to 55 years in prison. At his press conference, his resignation was expected. Instead, he protested his innocence, criticized the prosecution, put a .375 Magnum in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

1978:

Unhappy former cop Dan White climbed through a city hall window and executed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and newly-elected Supervisor Harvey Milk, the country’s first openly gay elected official. White, a conservative also serving on the board, had floundered politically, resigning, then withdrawing the resignation, only to be put in the position of waiting for the mayor to reinstate him, an intolerable delay.